under the sun

From Middle English under þe sonne, under þe sunne (compare Old English under sunnan), a calque of Hebrew תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ (táchat hashémesh). The phrase has been associated with the book of Ecclesiastes ever since appearing 29 times in the translation to English by John Wycliffe

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under the sun

1. (idiomatic) In existence.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ecclesiastes 9:11:

     I returned, and saw vnder the Sunne, That the race is not to the swift, nor the battell to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of vnderstanding, nor yet fauour to men of skil; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

   • 1859, Wilkie Collins, The Queen of Hearts:

     She argued boldly with me, on every subject under the sun, law and politics included; and, when I got the better of her, never hesitated to stop me by putting her hand on my lips, or by dragging me out into the garden in the middle of a sentence.

   • 1945 January and February, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 14:

     He was a most likeable and generous man, a Whitworth Scholar, and possessed of a fund of knowledge which seemed to cover every subject under the sun.

   • 2005, Hazel Smith, The writing experiment: strategies for innovative creative writing:

     I have also adopted a stance, familiar from consumer culture, which suggests that the goods under question can do anything under the sun.

• everything under the sun